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Chicken Breakfast

Jonathan: Chicken for breakfast anyone? No? Me neither, but there’s a character who lives on the east side of Uist who’s been round recently looking for just that … and having found it, has come back for more. The first time, though, there was no chicken on the menu. It was the first morning of our week of sunny dry weather, and I’d left the hen house door open to let the light and air in as I cleaned round and got ready for feeding time. Then suddenly there was a commotion and chickens came tumbling in through the open door, piling up on top of each-other, a tangle of wings and legs and squawking. Those pesky cockerels squabbling again, I thought, surely there are enough girls for each of them without fighting over them. The hens were continuing to stream in – and cockerels too. Something was odd. I stuck my head out through the doorway to see who the trouble-makers were, but not a single chicken was to be seen – they were all now indoors. What I did see shocked me – if not as much as it had the chickens. A golden eagle – its huge ragged-edged wings beating down, and massive legs trailing – rose from the ground and banked away with the wind and across the sea to the rocky fortresses of the east coast of Uist. Its talons were free of any payload : thankfully it had failed to catch a chicken. But a near miss is also a near-catch: it would be back. The chickens thought so too. I portioned out the feed in almost complete silence: there was the rattle of the grain in the metal troughs, and then rythmical pecking by the hens, but not one of them had anything to say. Either chickens are capable of thought, or they were just maintaining ‘radio silence’ (forgetting that their pecking of feed does rather give them away!)

A few days ago I arrived at the croft for feeding time, and it was again a fine, sunny morning, and I would normally expect chickens to be crowding up by the field gate waiting for me. Not one to be seen. As I walked, in trepidation, down to the hen house, I discovered why not. Just ten metres from the hen house there was a drift of feathers and down – but no corpse, not even any blood. I studied the feathers: a Welsumer hen. She would have put up a struggle with the raptor, but would have been carried away – possibly still half alive – to the raptor’s nest. Welsumers are a good sized hen, so it would have to have been a large buzzard or an eagle that took her. The chickens spent the rest of the day indoors, too traumatized to venture out even for water from the drinkers by the door, so later in the day when I returned to check on them, I put the drinkers indoors.

Chickens are certainly intelligent enough to learn how to live off the land they occupy, and to recognize and react to danger. But they’ve still got to feed, and they are free-range chickens. So the next day, and again yesterday, I arrived in the morning to find the chickens out and about as if nothing much had happened … but they weren’t straying far from the hen house.

This morning – fine again after an all-day storm yesterday, there was not a single chicken by the field gate, or even hanging out by the door to the hen house. I found them all indoors, panicking at the slightest shadow or sound. Outside, behind the hen house, I found a huge drift of feathers and down – and the remains of a large cockerel, its body partly eaten away. Perhaps it was too big to carry away, or perhaps I’d disturbed the eagle – I don’t know, as I hadn’t seen it. I completed my routine duties – feeding the chickens, wedders and the geese, and went back to the store to fetch an empty feed bag to collect the remains of the cockerel. When I got back to the kill site, I’d found the corpse had been moved about ten metres … but no eagle to be seen. I’d brought the camera from the car – so I took a photo. The wedders were curious too.

The eagle will be back again. In fact it could well be back every morning at day-break, when the light sensor opens the sliding hatch to let the hens out. What do we do?

Visitors to the islands that have chickens back at home often say we’re lucky there are no foxes here. True: but we have what they don’t: eagles, buzzards, ravens, gulls, crows, otters, mink, pole-cats … These predators have just as much right to life as do we, and we make allowance for some losses to predators. Even from a strictly financial perspective, if there were not big predators, what would there be here to attract holiday-makers – on whom we (and not just us – Uist generally) are increasingly dependent? But each chicken, at six months old, and before it has even laid an egg or fertlized one, has already cost us perhaps £5 in feed, the cost of housing, and a great deal more in our time and effort: we simply cannot afford to lose many – we’d simply have to give up. So what are we to do?

Break the cycle, Denise says. Disappoint the eagle’s expectations. Redirect its habits. What does that mean? We’re going to shut the chickens in for – well, perhaps a fortnight, or more. We lock them in for up to a week when we introduce pullets at six to eight weeks old – whlst they and the rest of the flock get used to each other. The house is large (it is in fact an old byre), warm, dry, and comfortable – though it would be better for having more windows. It’ll mean more spent on feed for a while … but is there any better option?

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Chicken Breakfast — 6 Comments

We’ve just introduced a dozen 6w old birds into the croft flock: we do this several times a year. They have to learn very very quickly where home is, what seaweed is all about, what dangers to look out for … This is best learned if they feel they belong to the flock, and we have found by hard experience that the way to do this is to shut them all up together in the big hen house (it’s actually an old byre) for up to a week. This time we’ll make it a fortnight because of the eagles. I’ve been looking at suggestions folks have made here and on facebook, and looked at what materials we’ve got available, and have decided to make a number of shelters scattered about the area the hens roam, so they have somewhere nearby to run for cover. Each shelter will be made of two pallets leaning together in a tent shape, tied together at the top and held down to the ground. Virtually no cost, just another job to do! We have a couple of additional ideas that seem to be practicable, if needed: more on which if necessary.

Scarecrows are to be seen in Uist. They need to be incredibly weather-resistent, which is difficult to achieve – and maintain. Main problem is that in the general area of the hen house there’s only a few inches of turf and peaty soil then very very hard rock, so nowhere to put in a post. Nonetheless, if I can manage the technical details I think this could work: I’ll be on the lookout for old clothing and other materials required. Thank you Chrisann!

Interesting post. I’ve kept chickens before but have been lucky enough to have never been troubled by fox visits. Friends of mine were, and I remember well the distress and upset – and then the simple reaction that you did anything you could to catch that damn animal or prevent it getting to your chickens again. however, it’s not so simple with Golden Eagles or other birds of prey, is it – they are such magnificent and rare creatures. All sorts of other “feelings” come into the equation. I did wonder if you could do something to put the predator off ? for example, if a chicken starts eating eggs, you give them a mustard egg, and they pretty soon stop. There must be a way to present the eagle with something disgustingly distasteful to put it off your chickens for good?!

Thanks for your comment! It is of course illegal to do anything harmful to an eagle, or indeed to other predators including ravens (of which there are many) and even crows. Besides, I have no desire at all to hurt them – they have a right to life just as much as we do. ‘Distasteful’ could mean curry powder or something like that, but what the effects on the bird might be … ? Perhaps I should seek advice from the government agency about this. A practical difficulty is that the distasteful ingredient – whatever it might be – needs to be added to something an eagle would find of interest, but as I understand it eagles seek live prey, not dead (which would work for ravens and crows), but maybe if they are really hungry? Funnily enough, corpses and carcasses are difficult to find when you want them!